A review by dmwhipp
A Bicycle Built for Murder by Kate Kingsbury

3.0

Lady Elizabeth “Lizzie” Compton is dealing with a crumbling manor, senile butler, grumbling cook, and cheeky maid, when one of her tenants asks her to solve the murder of her rather promiscuous teen daughter. Set in a small English village during WWII, Lizzie is also preparing her home to house a group of American officers to aid in the war effort. Putting aside a member of the nobility deciding to play detective, I found this a fair British cozy and quick enough read. But the characters didn’t feel fully fleshed out and the members of Lizzie’s household were not very likeable. The running gag of the butler’s dementia fell flat and grew old very quickly. And, while the murder was solved, many loose threads for other plot elements – such as the impending arrival of the Americans to the house, Lizzie’s attraction to a certain officer, the maid’s efforts at playing grown up – were left for a future book which I doubt I’ll be reading.